WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal immigration agents were prepared to arrest an illegal immigrant and registered sex offender days before the November elections but were ordered by Washington to hold off after officials warned of "significant interest" from Congress and news organizations because the suspect was a volunteer intern for Sen. Robert Menendez, according to internal agency documents provided to Congress.

The Homeland Security Department said last month, when The Associated Press first disclosed the delayed arrest of Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta, that AP's report was "categorically false."

Sanchez, 18, was an immigrant from Peru who entered the country on a now-expired visitor visa. He eventually was arrested at his home in New Jersey on Dec. 6. He has since been released from an immigration jail and is facing deportation. Sanchez has declined to speak to the AP.

So in the meantime we're allowing a known sex offender to wonder our streets while 'awaiting' deportation...

After the AP story, which cited an unnamed U.S. official involved in the case, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa and six other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Obama administration for details about the incident.

According to those documents, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Newark had arranged to arrest Sanchez at the local prosecutor's office on Oct. 25. That was fewer than two weeks before the election.

That might have knocked everyone off the favored narrative of 'binders' and 'impending hurricane'...

Noting that Sanchez was a volunteer in Menendez's Senate office, ICE officials in New Jersey advised that the arrest "had the possibility of garnering significant congressional and media interest" and were "advised to postpone the arrest" until officials in Washington gave approval. The documents describe a conference call between officials Washington and New Jersey to "determine a way forward, given the potential sensitivities surrounding the case."

The senators, in a letter to the Homeland Security Department, said the agency documents showed that Sanchez's arrest "was delayed by six weeks," as AP had reported. They asked for details about the department's review of potentially sensitive, high profile immigration cases when arrests are delayed.

In the meantime, the good Senator continued to make use of Sanchez's services in his campaign office...

In a letter Monday, Assistant DHS Secretary Nelson Peacock said an allegation that the government delayed Sanchez's arrest "for political purposes" was categorically false. Neither the unnamed U.S. official cited in AP's original story or the senators in their letters to the department had specifically alleged that the arrest had been delayed for political purposes.

So why was the arrest delayed then?

The documents provided to Congress do not indicate why the arrest should have been delayed or whether anyone outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- such as in the headquarters offices of the Homeland Security Department -- was consulted.

So you can indicate it now. Now would be an excellent time.

Menendez, D-N.J., who advocates aggressively for pro-immigration policies, was re-elected on Nov. 6 with 58 percent of the vote. Menendez said last month that his staff was notified about the case immediately before AP's story, he learned about the case from the AP and he knew nothing about whether or why DHS had delayed the arrest.

Of course not. No one in Washington ever talks or leaks, you know...

According to police records, Sanchez was 15 when he was arrested on a charge of aggravated sexual assault in 2009. The records show he was accused of sexually assaulting an 8-year-old boy at least eight times and sentenced to two years' probation and required to register as a sex offender. The AP is not reporting the boy's relationship to Sanchez to avoid identifying the victim.

Fair enough. Why wasn't he deported in 2009? What's this 'probation' nonsense for a child molester?

The agency documents show that Sanchez failed to update his sex offender registration, and local prosecutors considered arresting him for that.

Perhaps they were busy chasing down red light offenders or were harrassing internet pioneers who were downloading publicly-accessible documents...

During the same time, immigration officials learned that Sanchez had applied for the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which would have allowed him to stay in the country and legally work for two years. He did not disclose his arrest or status as a sex offender on the application and was eventually denied, according to the documents.

And then he was deported. No wait, he wasn't...

Immigration enforcement operations in New Jersey were largely halted starting Oct. 28 as officials prepared for Hurricane Sandy. By Nov. 29, ICE had planned to arrest Sanchez after Citizenship and Immigration Services had formally denied his deferred action application. The following day, the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor was consulted. The agency's chief counsel was also consulted and the arrest was approved Dec. 5.

Sanchez was arrested the next day.

During the final weeks of President George W. Bush's administration, ICE was criticized for delaying the arrest of President Barack Obama's aunt, who had ignored an immigration judge's order to leave the country several years earlier after her asylum claim was denied. She subsequently won the right to stay in the United States after an earlier deportation order, and there was no evidence of involvement by the White House.

None at all. ICE never talks to anyone...

In that case, the Homeland Security Department had imposed an unusual directive days before the 2008 election requiring high-level approval before federal agents nationwide could arrest fugitive immigrants including Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Obama's late father. The directive from ICE expressed concerns about "negative media or congressional interest," according to a copy of that directive obtained by AP. The department lifted the immigration order weeks later.

#1
On Monday, the New Jersey state Senate, in a party-line vote, passed a bill that would exclude construction workers who are not a part of a union from doing work related to Hurricane Sandy cleanup and reconstruction in the state.

#5
And Obama today, in concert with the Teachers Union's indoctrination of our children in the class rooms are publishing letters from kids and trotting them out. The most innocent segment of society that Obama and his supporters refuse to protect.

#6
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." -Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403

#7
Glenmore, if that is a true quote why hasn't anyone quoted that before? I'm not denying its real, you quote the page and all, but its so damning of the hiding behind children political class I'm amazed nobody dug it up.

#8
I wonder myself, rjs. I don't have the document, merely the citation of it, which could be fabricated. The use of children as props for political action did occur though. And continues to by politicians worldwide. 'Kissing babies' and all that.

#10
Glenmore, I can believe the statement. Children were sired by the fittest for the benefit of the State. Hitler Youth was created--not exactly your Boy Scouts. It was said they often turned their parents in for infractions against the State.

Wait a minute, I've been seeing children in Presidential photo ops prior to announcements more and more.

Enough to turn your stomach. I know that Obama has no shame. But the parents of these children really should be ashamed of themselves for allowing their children to be exploited this way for political purposes.

#16
""The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation." -Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403 "

Only the first sentence is in the original text:

"Er hat das Kind zum kostbarsten Gut eines Volkes zu erklären. "

But then something totally different (and sinister) on racial hygiene follows.

Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks.

Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.

Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.

#3
give law enforcement the ability to run a full background check on an individual before returning a seized gun.
So seizing a gun gives permission for a 'fishing expedition'? Was the gun seized 'for cause' of some kind, or just because a policeman saw it? Was it seized from the owner or from a gun shop or from someone who had stolen it?

#7
Besoeker: having the CDC involved has been a long-time dream/plan for the progressives. They want to use it for stealth regulation, the same way they've wanted the CDC to regulate tobacco, salt and sugar. I'm not kidding. If the CDC can 'study' it, they can come up with 'recommendations'. Remember, they want 'science' to drive the debate -- their science.

#10
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."

#13
Theres actually a progession going on here.
#6 :Is the setup for later gun regulations and backgroud checks on personal sales and gifts.
-Remember, govt programs never go away, they just look for something to do.-
#14 : The CDC study. Want to bet what they official result is? Health and safety risk.
Which leads to
#16 : Will these doctors questions be official, or can you decline to discuss?
And -ta-da
#21 : Your health insurer and ACA supplier gets to ask specific questions regarding health risks, aka smoking, drinking, drugs. They add gun ownership to list, and want specific answers, as in type, serial numbers, and ammunition availability. Theyre not the govt, so no rights apply. Price of coverage would be based on the answers, coverage could be denied/cancelled based on answers or the lack thereof.

#14
Better to ask if you own or operate a motor vehicle given the higher rate of deaths associated with the technology.

Even better to ask if you had been in a hospital - An average of 195,000 people in the USA died due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors in each of the years 2000, 2001 and 2002, according to a new study of 37 million patient records...

#15
The training for active shooter response is long overdue. Only thing missing is giving teachers the firearm to fully carry out the full gamut of proper responses. Some of these are horrid CDC, consumer product safety, etc. but there are a few good things in there (surprised the hell out of me).

#16
Meanwhile, D'JANGO Fans, those illegals sneaking into the US from Mexico are taking a well-earned siesta because their illegal comrades up in Canada are demanding "fair-n-equal time" [catch-up] wid Mexico as per covert penetration into the US.

NO NEED FOR PRIVATE GUN OWNERSHIP ANYMORE BECAUSE THE CANADIANS WILL STOP'EM COLD JUST AS THEY STOPPED SEVERAL SOVIET ARMY GROUPS FROM INVADING ALASKA, CANADA, + UPPER US IN THE ORIGINAL "RED DAWN".

#3
No, he's splitting a hair here: In socialism, the means of production is owned and run by the state. In facism, MOP is privately owned, but run by the state.
I know, big freakin' difference. The point is in fascism, you're allowed to be out-and-out wealthy, but in socialism eveybody's completely equal.
Yeah. Hoo Ha.

According to a background briefer provided by the White House, President Barack Obama is asking doctors to help deal with guns. Here's the relevant passage:

PRESERVE THE RIGHTS OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS TO PROTECT THEIR PATIENTS AND COMMUNITIES FROM GUN VIOLENCE: We should never ask doctors and other health care providers to turn a blind eye to the risks posed by guns in the wrong hands.

Clarify that no federal law prevents health care providers from warning law enforcement authorities about threats of violence: Doctors and other mental health professionals play an important role in protecting the safety of their patients and the broader community by reporting direct and credible threats of violence to the authorities. But there is public confusion about whether federal law prohibits such reports about threats of violence. The Department of Health and Human Services is issuing a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits these reports in any way.

Protect the rights of health care providers to talk to their patients about gun safety: Doctors and other health care providers also need to be able to ask about firearms in their patients' homes and safe storage of those firearms, especially if their patients show signs of certain mental illnesses or if they have a young child or mentally ill family member at home. Some have incorrectly claimed that language in the Affordable Care Act prohibits doctors from asking their patients about guns and gun safety. Medical groups also continue to fight against state laws attempting to ban doctors from asking these questions. The Administration will issue guidance clarifying that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit or otherwise regulate communication between doctors and patients, including about firearms.Good Luck With That, Mr. Zero

#1
Doctors already have to ask about seatbelt wearing and other bullshit with Obamacare. Why not guns? In fact, why not have to report to a doctor for weekly confession under Obamacare? He will then report you to the IRS treasury agents that are stationed there and have you arrested and/or fined appropriately.

#2
This doesn't look like it asks doctors to collect gun info, per se. Nor does it seem to require you to answer. For now. It does allow them to do so and seems to place such conversation outside patient confidentiality though.

#3
We are not required to ask; this is saying that we are not prohibited from asking.

It's the slippery slope, which is getting more slippery and is sloping more sharply.

Pediatricians are already mandated to ask about certain issues either by state laws or by their professional society. You can see where this is going.

Example: I am not 'required' to use the EMR at my institution, but my institution gets extra money if I do use it to check off certain items (I electronically reviewed a patient's allergies, medications, etc). Guess how that works out in the end.

Plenty of people are both. Crazy people commit somewhat more violent crimes per capita than non-crazy people, but most crazy people are not evil... we must face the facts about the possibility of changing what is crazy and changing what is evil. I have spent most of my life working with mental illness. I have been president of the worlds largest association of mental-illness workers, and I am all for more funding for mental-health care and research  but not in the vain hope that it will curb violence.

While revising five editions of my textbook on abnormal psychology, I have found that drugs and therapy offer disappointingly little additional help for the mentally ill than they did 25 years ago  despite billions of dollars in funding. And there is zero promise that any developments I am aware of will help curb the violence that mentally ill persons commit.

As for progress on restraining or rehabilitating evil people, the past record and future promise are even more dismal. I know of no development that has much reduced recidivism or violence or done more to identify violent offenders in advance than was in place a generation ago.

I conclude from all this that progress in reducing violence through either helping the mentally ill or curbing the impulses of violent, non-crazy people will be very slow in coming, perhaps even fruitless.
--- He does go on to advocate stricter gun control despite his reservations, but his principal point still stands, that identifying 'threats of violence' is of very little use. "Direct and credible threats" are nearly always determined ex post facto.

#5
you can see where this is going. I can.
Very easy to see where this is going, using health care providers to oppress people, a la the old USSR.
Perhaps a way to civilly respond to this is for all health care providers to report every single patient they have in these words: "Patient, &/or patient's parent(s) or legal guardian(s) either admits owning firearms, denies owning firearms, or will not respond to my question about ownership of firearms, and I am not sure whether or not the patient, &/or patient's parent(s) or legal guardian(s) is telling the truth, lying or withholding information. I am submitting this to higher authorities for their review."
--- EMR (electronic medical records) should make this bit automatic in every patient chart for every visit.
--- The authorities would have their system crash in 24 hours if the great majority of health care providers did this.

#8
They may not ask you as-so-far, but they will ask the young children; most likely when the parent is not with the child - like at school when the nurse checks for head lice or more effective one-on-one situation. Think, "Before I take your temperature to see if you are ill, you may have become infected by someone in your family handling a gun. Now, you wouldn't want me to not tell you the truth, so tell me the truth so I can treat you correctly - did you are your parents handle a gun?"

#12
swksvolFF has it. This is exactly what has happened in the pediatric community, where pediatricians and pediatric nurses are being asked (required) to ask questions of the young'ens so as rat out their parents.

This happened in the Soviet Union; indeed it was considered a mark of honor to inform on your parents. Though I think the population had a rather different word for it -- 'stukach'...

#13
However, you can't ask if they're illegally in the country. Remember doctor-patient confidentiality means that the doc can't tell the parents, let alone the local prosecutor [can you say Carnal Knowledge Mr. Prosecutor?], when an underage girl is pregnant, but the doc is to tell the government you have something completely legal and specified in the Constitution.

#19
"Went in for a drivers license renewal today and they asked all of us if we were mentally ill or had ever been in a mental institution or in jail."

WM, I've never been asked that for my driver's license, but if I were, the answer would be "Sure! We were called to the jail all the time when I was in the rescue squad. Lots of locked and barred doors - you don't want to go there." ;-p

President Barack Obama has unveiled a raft of sweeping gun control proposals, setting the stage for a showdown with firearms rights advocates.

Mr Obama called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and wider background checks on gun buyers. The Democratic president also signed 23 executive actions, which do not require congressional approval.

Mr Obama said gun-control reforms could not wait any longer, after last month's school massacre in Connecticut.

Never let a crisis go to waste, I think Rahm said...

He unveiled the proposals at the White House on Wednesday, flanked by children who wrote him letters after December's Newtown school shooting, which left 26 dead.

But it's despicable to ask him why the children of the nomenklatura can have armed guards at their schools...

Mr Obama said: "If there's even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got an obligation to try."

He urged Congress:

to reintroduce an expired ban on "military-style" assault weapons, such as those used in several recent mass shootings

limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds

introduce background checks on all gun sales; currently private sales and some sales at gun shows, constituting about 40% of the national total, are exempt

#2
All 23 executive orders: Link. Many of them have been tried and did nothing. The others are attempts at unbridled authority. Others try to link the Affordable Care Act with gun control. If I'm not mistaken, the NRA lobbied hard to include a section in Obamacare that made it illegal for doctors to ask whether you have firearms in your home. These executive orders try to do an end-around to that legal requirement.

On the day that President Barack Obama will announce an agenda for curbing gun violence following last months shooting at a Connecticut school, the National Rifle Association is running an ad labeling Obama an elitist hypocrite because his own children receive armed protection.

Obama plans to propose executive actions and legislative proposals at an 11:55 a.m. White House appearance today with Vice President Joe Biden, who developed the plan in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings, which killed 20 first- graders and six educators on Dec. 14. Following those shootings, the NRA proposed armed guards for all the nations schools.

#1
was just watching p.o.s. Joe Scarborough gnash his judas teeth over supposed NRA ad pointing out Dear leader's hypocrisy on his kids going to schools that have armed guards...Scarborough and useful idiot sidekicks all feigned sufficient outrage (while obviously missing point completely) at "out of touch" NRA. I'm proud to be an NRA life member and am good w/that ad.

#2
I'm also a life member. I'm good with the NRA video. The NRA recommended armed security in the schools and it was dismissed by this administration as not being a serious approach. The NRA has also mentioned addressing crazy people and gang violence. I've heard no mention of this by the administration.

#3
I do worry about how the government might address crazy people. For example, they might deem anyone who speaks out against or disagrees with Champ a mental health threat. What's the next step--anyone who has a firearm is deemed a threat? I have no confidence in an administration to enforce laws when it has a history of law-breaking. I have been hearing about some pushback against the executive orders from county sheriffs in various places across the country.

#5
"The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation."

#6
Ah yes, the govmint worked for the benefit of the children at Waco and Ruby Ridge too. The 2nd Amendent was created with an eye towards a wariness of a of corrupt and tyrannical government and a prescription for what to do about it.

[FRANCE24] President Barack ObamaThe Cambridge police acted stupidly... warned Monday that unless Republican politicians agree to raise the US sovereign debt ceiling the country could face a new economic crisis and global markets could go "haywire."

"To even entertain the idea of this happening, of the United States of America not paying its bills, it is irresponsible, it is absurd," Obama said, repeating his demand for a debt limit rise.

"We are not a deadbeat nation," the president said in his final presser of his first White House term, pinning responsibility for the government's deficit spending on Congress, which passes spending bills.

"While I'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, America cannot afford another debate with this Congress about whether or not they should pay the bills they've already racked up."

#1
IIRC the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution reuires + supports that the US as a Nation "pay its debts" + obligations + "live widin its means" which IMO only strongly infers "balanced budget" but NOT support for the concept of frivolous deficit spending, i.e. spending $$$ just because we can espec when the national budget is NOT in balance or in the black???

Where "budget surplus" now means "deficit/debt reudction" where the national budget remains prennially in the negative.

BECAUSE CLEARLY STATUTORY "... NOT GREATER THAN 6% OF GDP" = "37%" AND STILL COUNTING".

[HUMANEVENTS] Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) gave an interview to the Christian Broadcasting Network in which he rather strongly denounced President B.O.'s threats to impose gun control through executive orders. "I'm against having a king," said the Senator. "I think having a monarch is what we fought the American Revolution over, and someone who wants to bypass the Constitution, bypass Congress, that's someone who wants to act like a king or monarch."

#6
I think having a monarch is what we fought the American Revolution over
I think somebody needs a little history lesson.
Maybe me too. I thought the cause was absentee government, 'taxation without representation'.
Like paying a gas tax for highway maintenance then driving on potholes and falling down brid...wait a minute!

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.